# Blackouts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989 "2003-04-16T01:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/1 "2003-04-16T01:25:18Z")
Alright, so last weekend I was enjoying a party when I woke up and wondered what exactly happened. The last thing I remember was drinking some grain alcohol. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that I had blacked out for a period of about an hour. This is the third time in my life this has happened. I want to stress that I really don’t drink a lot, mainly because I don’t like hangovers and I don’t like putting my foot in my mouth. In any event, I was wondering a few things: 1. What causes a blackout? (I know the alcohol does, but what does the alcohol do to cause the blackout) 2. How bad are blackouts? 3. How different is a person when they blackout (this one is subjective I suppose)? 4. Does blacking out mean that I was either close to alcohol poisoning or that I actually had it? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/2 "2003-04-16T02:05:13Z")
One theory of alcoholic blackouts is that a subtype of the brain’s neurotransmitter system, the NMDA-Glutamate receptor is inhibited by ethanol. Here’s a [Scientific American article](http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=00092B25-77ED-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7) on it. This may bolster the theory that during the blackout, the person is not moving anything from short-term memory to long-term memory. When this happens, the episode is lost for good. Occasionally the blackout happens while the individual is (relatively) sober, rather than during the most severe intoxication. How bad are blackouts? Depends on what you did during one. One airline pilot flew cross-country with a full load of passengers in his 727 with no recollection of having done so. Pretty bad. Another claimed he murdered his wife during one. Worse. Behavior during a blackout can be completely normal for that person. Or it can be as violent as any alcohol-induced outburst which is not accompanied by memory loss. Alcohol dis-inhibits, so elicits behavior that while thought of, is usually not acted on. There is a high correlation with having blackouts and being an alcoholic. Here’s a nice little alcohol [primer](http://www.alcoholmd.com/asp/pedia/main.asp) QtM, MD ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/3 "2003-04-16T02:09:34Z")
1. [http://www.emory.edu/WHEEL/Issue/01Jan26/arts4.html](http://www.emory.edu/WHEEL/Issue/01Jan26/arts4.html) > [@](#): > > Question: What causes alcohol blackouts? > > Answer: > > Alcoholic blackouts are officially known as amnesia. Non-alcoholics can experience blackouts after ingesting large quantities of ethanol, but amnesia is more common in alcoholics. Amnesia is considered anterograde, which means old memories are not affected. What are affected are events during the extreme intoxication. Generally, the blackout occurs because alcohol at high levels impairs the brain’s ability to consolidate new information from short-term to long-term memory. 1. [http://www.gannett.com/go/difference/greatfalls/pages/part9/havoc.html](http://www.gannett.com/go/difference/greatfalls/pages/part9/havoc.html) > [@](#): > > Heavy drinkers often can’t remember what they did under the influence of alcohol. > > “Blackouts often come in the latter stages of drinking, but people prone to alcoholism, especially females, are prone to have blackouts earlier,” he said. “Once they start, blackouts become more frequent and longer in duration.” 1. You’ll have to ask the folks who were around you when you blacked out. [http://www.recoveryemporium.com/AbuseFacts.htm](http://www.recoveryemporium.com/AbuseFacts.htm) > [@](#): > > What are blackouts? > > Blackouts are lapses in memory during intoxication; they are not a loss of consciousness. Whether lasting a few minutes or hours, blackouts are unpredictable but usually happen when the blood alcohol level is high. A blackout usually occurs after ingestion of large amounts of alcohol and for most social drinkers, it is a learning experience. Continued drinking patterns that produce blackouts indicate a high risk for alcohol problems. 1. No. You weren’t suffering alcohol poisoning–you were blacked out. You simply don’t remember that hour or so. [http://members.aol.com/intoxikon/alcohol.poisoning.html](http://members.aol.com/intoxikon/alcohol.poisoning.html) > [@](#): > > Symptoms of Alcohol Poisoning > > If you have any of the following symptoms, you are experiencing an overdose reaction: > > Vomiting > Passed out > Difficult to awaken > Slow, shallow breathing > [@](#): > > \*\*I want to stress that I really don’t drink a lot \*\*Sermon. [http://www.tmh.org/bhc/chemicaldepend.htm](http://www.tmh.org/bhc/chemicaldepend.htm) > [@](#): > > _Alcoholics are masters at denial. They may justify to themselves, “I don’t drink as much as others”…_ [lowefamily.org - For Sale!](http://www.lowefamily.org/interviews/dec00_p2.html) > [@](#): > > _Most alcoholics will say that they don’t have a drinking problem, they don’t drink that much…_ End of sermon. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/4 "2003-04-16T03:26:15Z")
\ Denial is not a symptom of alcoholism. It is a sympton of being human. “Denial” is also on the list for heart attacks as well. People that have never had a drink in their life will deny drinking to much also. \ Having ranted, my wife’s coworker blacks out all the time but doesn’t seem bothered by it. His drinking seems to rarely get him in trouble but I have no doubt that his blackouts, without it bothering him, shows him to be an alcoholic. No doubt, his drinking will catch up with him. Hopefully, it only kills him. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/5 "2003-04-16T11:39:18Z")
Eh, perhaps I am an alcoholic. I do come from an alcoholic family (my father). I suppose I mean that this was the first time I’d gotten drunk in half a year or so. I have an occasional beer/drink about once a month, but as I said, I hadn’t gotten drunk in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/6 "2003-04-17T23:35:08Z")
Oh [Dear](http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030415/12/dxsd4.html) > [@](#): > > Partial memory blackouts after drinking binges could contribute to future alcoholism, say researchers, because drinkers may fill in the blanks with rosy memories. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/7 "2003-04-18T02:17:12Z")
That wasn’t really J. Lo you were kissing, dude… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/8 "2003-04-18T03:08:41Z")
:eek: I suppose it _wasn’t her face I was kissing either_!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Conrad\_Verloc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Conrad\_Verloc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Conrad_Verloc)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/9 "2003-04-18T11:13:25Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by billy \* \*\*\ Denial is not a symptom of alcoholism. It is a sympton of being human. “Denial” is also on the list for heart attacks as well. People that have never had a drink in their life will deny drinking to much also. \ Denial is a symptom of alcoholism. This statement means: If alcoholism then denial. It does not mean: If denial then alcoholism. (That would be: If and only if alcoholism then denial) That’s called “the fallacy of affirming the consequent” and is quite common, and quite wrong. Denial is a symptom of many things, including alcoholism. Another symptom of alcoholism is blackout. I believe it would be wise for anyone who experiences blackout and has alcoholism in their family to consider their alcohol consumption very, very carefully and honestly. I have sometimes wished I had done so sooner than I did. ---
**Author:** ![billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/10 "2003-04-18T14:38:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Conrad Verloc \* > \*\* > > Denial is a symptom of alcoholism. > > This statement means: If alcoholism then denial. > > It does not mean: If denial then alcoholism. (That would be: If and only if alcoholism then denial) > > That’s called “the fallacy of affirming the consequent” and is quite common, and quite wrong. Denial is a symptom of many things, including alcoholism. > > \*\* Denial is a symptom that pre-exsists the alcoholism. Denial is present when I take my 1st drink at 16 knowing my parents were both alcoholics and believe that I can handle it. It doesn’t seem logical to me to use a pre-exsisting condition as a symptom for a disease. Of course, finding a way around admitting I lost my job, wife, car, and house because of my drinking would take denial to a new level. I have little experience in this field so please educate me if I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/11 "2003-04-18T15:18:38Z")
Alcohol is a problem in your life if it _causes_ problems in your life. Getting fired = problem. Neglecting family = problem. Doing crazy and/or violent things = major problem. Blackout is a _side effect_ of alcohol. Having a blackout means that you’ve experienced a side-effect of alcohol. On its own, it doesn’t mean that you’re an alcoholic, or that you’re likely to become one. This whole “denial is a symptom” is utter crap. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/12 "2003-04-18T17:30:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > **Having a blackout means that you’ve experienced a side-effect of alcohol. On its own, it doesn’t mean that you’re an alcoholic, or that you’re likely to become one.** Sorry, **Desmo**. I must take exception. If a blackout occurs from alcohol use, the odds of the individual who had the blackout being or becoming an alcoholic go waaaay up. This particular side-effect of alcohol is experienced far more frequently by alcoholics than non-alcoholics. QtM, MD ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/13 "2003-04-18T19:56:50Z")
Incidently does it make a difference if this was my first real time drinking grain alcohol? ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/14 "2003-04-18T20:27:06Z")
If your body and your brain let you drink so much that you have a blackout, that might indicate you have a strong physiological potential to be an alcoholic. It is not normal to drink so much you can’t remember what happened. If you are able to drink so much that you have a blackout, and your body doesn’t say ‘stop drinking’, and your brain is not saying ‘I have had enough’, something is wrong in the way your body handles alcohol. You need to be very, very careful. ---
**Author:** ![billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/15 "2003-04-18T20:30:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meatros \* > \*\*Eh, perhaps I am an alcoholic. I do come from an alcoholic family (my father). I suppose I mean that this was the first time I’d gotten drunk in half a year or so. I have an occasional beer/drink about once a month, but as I said, I hadn’t gotten drunk in a while. \*\* Having a black out doesn’t make you an alcoholic. I think the deal is that people that suffer blackouts, are more prone to alcoholism. That could be genetic: Those with the genes for alcoholism blackout easier. It could be social: Those that care so little about control and drink themselfes into blackouts, are likely to drink themselves into alcoholism out of carelessness. It could be either or a combination of both. I don’t know. If you go for a month without drinking, and without feeling a strong desire to drink, and aren’t drawn to alcohol when stressed out, I am gonna go out on a limb and say you’re not an alcoholic. If you drink once a month, but black out monthly from it, I say you’re walking a fine line and should not drink due to the correlation between blackouts and alcoholism, especially if you have a family history. My $0.02 even though this is in GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Conrad\_Verloc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Conrad\_Verloc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Conrad_Verloc)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/16 "2003-04-19T19:38:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*Alcohol is a problem in your life if it _causes_ problems in your life. > > Getting fired = problem. > Neglecting family = problem. > Doing crazy and/or violent things = major problem. > > Blackout is a _side effect_ of alcohol. > > \*\* I do agree with the first statement. If alcohol doesn’t cause one problems it can hardly be considered a problem in itself. Beyond that, though, the assumption, I think, is that blackout is not a problem in itself. I submit that it is. I can think of very few situations where loss of memory is not a problem. Some time ago, I spent an evening babysitting for a friend. Before he left, he placed a bottle of Coke and a bottle of 151 proof alcohol on the coffee table and told me to enjoy myself. So I did, I guess. He returned a couple of hours later and I drove home. When I got there, my girlfriend was angry. She wanted to know where I’d been. She’d just called the police. She’d called my friend and found that I had left his house four hours earlier. Somehow, I had spent those four hours. I did not and do not know how. I may have been sitting in my car somewhere in a drunken stupor. I may have been doing crazy things. To me, that is a problem. To my knowledge, that was my first blackout. In another one, I somehow broke my left foot and yet another resulted in a large hole in my bedroom wall. Fortunately, most of the others occurred in situations where I was later able to consult with friends as to my behavior during the time in question. Oddly, most of these lapses occurred in the years before I was an alcoholic. On the other hand, The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine (Random House, 1989), gives blackout as a characteristic of the second of their four phases of the development of alcohol dependence: “Entering the second phase, the drinker experiences memory lapses relating to events occurring during the drinking episodes.” So, perhaps blackout is not a symptom, but a characteristic, of alcoholism. The same encycolpedia lists the perhaps less severe “poor memory” under the heading “Physical Symptoms.” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackouts/168989/17 "2003-04-19T20:35:55Z")
Um…yeah. Blackouts are a problem because you are fucking with your brain. Not a good idea. It’s more than the occasional forgetfullness one experiences while drinking. As someone who drinks often, there has been many a morning of “oh man!! Now I remember doing that!” after something jogs my memory. I have never experienced a “how the hell did I get here?” morning and would likely quit drinking if I ever did. Also…I have to question when someone says they don’t drink a lot yet they are dabbling in the world of grain alchohol. Not a good idea.